


an unexpected practicum in age and youth

by bellafarallones



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Age Difference, Age Regression/De-Aging, Comedy, Denny's, Established Relationship, M/M, Porn with Feelings, Secret Relationship, Virginity Roleplay, Weird Dirty Talk, grindr date roleplay, technically. duck physically but not mentally de-ages to 22, weird but not morally unpalatable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:34:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27929836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellafarallones/pseuds/bellafarallones
Summary: Aubrey accidentally magics Duck into a twenty-two-year-old body. Indrid feels like a little bit of a creep for being attracted to him, but hey, at least they have fun with it.
Relationships: Indrid Cold/Duck Newton
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29





	an unexpected practicum in age and youth

The Denny’s in Kepler was, essentially, a Sylph-free zone. One time Jake had gone with the Hornets and Barclay had been so horrified that anyone would ever pay for  _ inferior pancakes  _ when it was  _ so easy just to make them yourself, c’mon, and they don’t even give you real maple syrup  _ that nobody had dared to eat there since. 

That was why Indrid and Duck went there for date night, why now they were sitting on opposite sides of a torn-up orange booth. Indrid looked the same as he always did, silver hair, opaque red sunglasses, tank top and cardigan over his thin frame. And Duck… well, Duck looked younger. Significantly younger, with no streaks of gray in his hair or lines on his face, especially compared to Indrid’s middle-agedness.

Duck sighed and looked up from his menu. “I would have called to warn you about… y’know. But. Uh. I figured you’d know.”

“Understandable,” murmured Indrid. “Am I allowed to ask what happened?”

“Aubrey went a little too hard with cure wounds and apparently de-aged me twenty-five years.”

“So you’re… twenty-two?”

“Yup. I’m mostly impressed you remembered how old I am.” Duck studied Indrid’s face across the table. “Do you, uh, do you mind? If it’s too weird seeing me like this, we can… well, I should be back to normal soon. Aubrey went to talk to Janelle about it.”

“Do I mind? No. It does make me feel like a little bit of a creep for being attracted to you, though.”

“Oh, shut up, it’s still me in here.” Duck looked more closely at Indrid’s face, which was slightly flushed. Then he shifted in his seat and stretched his arms behind his back, pushing his chest out. “Y’know, I’d forgotten how flexible I was at twenty-two.”

“Hngh,” said Indrid. 

“D’you think anyone in here thinks you’re my dad?”

Indrid snorted. “No, I’m weird uncle material at best.” Then he paused. “So how would a spry young thing like yourself have picked up an old codger like me?”

“Grindr?” They both broke down laughing. “Yeah,” Duck continued, “my username’s BearCub69 and yours is, I don’t know -”

“A string of random alphanumeric characters?”

“Oh, yeah, that sounds like something you’d do.”

The waitress came to take their order. Indrid got his usual sugary disaster, and raised his eyebrows when Duck ordered something heartburn-inducing as well.

“Twenty-two year old stomach, remember?” said Duck. He didn’t like having his body changed, but he was committed to making the best of it. 

“How could I forget?”

“So we met on Grindr, and you have a terrible username. And I probably thought you were a spam bot at first but in fact you’re so classy you’re taking me to Denny’s before you defile my young virginal self in your trailer.”

“You weren’t a virgin at twenty-two.”

“Shush. I’m using my imagination.”

Indrid’s smile disappeared, and for a moment Duck wondered if he’d gone too far. But Indrid just pushed his glasses up on his nose and spoke in a low voice. “Juno Divine incoming. Three minutes. Ninety-percent chance she says something about you looking two decades too young.”

“Fuck.” Just because no Sylphs would see them together here didn’t mean no one else he knew would.

“I assume you cooked up a plausible story before you decided to go out in this very small town with a twenty-five-years younger face?”

“Oh, yeah,” Duck mumbled. “A believable lie. Right.” He was still waffling when Juno’s hand clapped onto his shoulder.

“Duck!” she said. “I’d recognize that ranger hat anywhere.” She startled when he turned around. “Holy shit.”

Duck cringed, scratched at the back of his neck. “Uh, yeah, you, uh, you know Aubrey Little?”

“Yeah, you look about as old as she is.”

“Aubrey made this anti-aging cream,” said Indrid smoothly. “With essential oils and, uh, shards of crystal-healing crystal in it. Duck agreed to test it out.”

Juno’s eyebrows went up. “Sounds painful.”

“Very small crystal shards,” Duck added helpfully. 

“I mean, it’s done wonders for your wrinkles, but…”

“Yeah, I know,” said Duck. “It’s a bit drastic. I’m sure it’ll have, uh, worn off by Monday.”

“Good, because, and I say this as someone who knew you through the ravages of high school, you do look like you’re about to break out.”

Duck’s hands flew to his face. “Oh,  _ no -” _

“Don’t touch your skin, it’ll make it worse!” Juno laughed. “Well, I’d better get going. I bet that cream’d sell real well if Aubrey made it a little less strong.”

“I’ll pass that along,” said Duck miserably. When Juno left he turned to Indrid. “Am I going to have  _ acne  _ tomorrow?”

“Um,” said Indrid. “The odds are good.”

“Fuck. Aubrey better figure out how to turn me back soon.”

“At least it distracted Juno from asking about me,” Indrid pointed out.

He had a point there. Duck hadn’t introduced Indrid to any of his human friends. Not that he didn’t want to, it was just… they’d have questions about where Indrid was from, or what he did for a living, or how he and Duck had met, and he didn’t have answers.

Indrid had already moved on. “If you’re going to convince anyone you’re really twenty-two you’re going to have to use some young-person slang.”

“Vibes,” Duck ventured. “Lit. Yeet?”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. ‘Lit’ used to be about drugs but I don’t think it is anymore. Aubrey says ‘yeet’ whenever she throws something.”

“So is it like ‘ahoy?’”

Duck laughed. “Nobody says ‘ahoy.’”

“I guess I really  _ am  _ older than you..” Indrid looked a little uncomfortable.

Duck didn’t really consider Indrid older than him, even though he hadn’t even been born yet when the whole Silver Bridge thing went down, and that wasn’t even getting into Indrid’s years on Silvain. Still, Indrid’s weirdness didn’t feel like a generation gap thing. “How old are you relative to the other sylphs?”

“I’m middle-aged. A little older than Barclay, younger than Moira.”

“Does that mean that when I’m old, really old, you’ll still be middle-aged? Just because of the time scales?”

Indrid was silent for a moment. “It would seem so.”

“Sorry, I shouldn’t be so grim.” It didn’t matter, anyway. Duck didn’t deceive himself to think that this was anything other than a pre-apocalypse fling. Even if an abomination didn’t take him out in the next few months, Indrid didn’t seem like the type to settle down anywhere, with anyone.

Indrid managed a smile. “I don’t mind. I do spend more time contemplating mortality than most people.”

The waitress arrived with a chocolate milkshake and crepes smothered in Nutella for Indrid and a stack of chocolate-chip pancakes for Duck, and for a moment they ate in silence. 

“You could make yourself look however old you wanted, couldn’t you?” said Duck finally.

“I could. I could make myself appear to age as you do, if you don’t feel like playing the old man in twenty years.” Some of Duck’s surprise must have shown on his face, because Indrid rushed to continue. “That’s if - of course, we - never mind. How’s that new topographical map in the visitor’s center coming?”

“Real good, actually. The only thing left is the wiring.”

“Wiring?”

“Yeah, so when you push a button next to the description of an area on the sign, that area lights up on the map so you can find it easier.”

“Very clever. I’ll have to come to the visitor’s center to see it sometime.”

“Might even be able to swing for a private tour,” said Duck flirtatiously.

“Yeah? From my favorite park ranger?”

As they talked and ate, Duck forgot all about his appearance. But outside in the parking lot Indrid laced their fingers together, and looking down Duck was startled anew by how young his hands looked, and it all came crashing back.

“That thing you said about my trailer and your young virginal self,” Indrid murmured.

“Yeah?” Duck’s hand slipped out of Indrid’s when they reached Duck’s truck. Indrid got into the passenger seat, and Duck got distracted looking at him, his face illuminated by the light of the Denny’s. “Can I kiss you?”

Indrid simply leaned forward. They kissed languidly for a moment across the console, Indrid touching Duck’s cheek with just his fingertips, lightly, as if he didn’t want to impose. “We could do this more comfortably somewhere else,” said Indrid finally.

“Right. Yes.” Duck turned the key in the ignition and the truck roared to life. They’d been doing this thing, this meeting-for-dinner and making-out and falling-into-bed thing, for long enough now that he probably could have driven from Denny’s to the Winnebago and back in his sleep.

Finally the gravel of the campground crunched beneath the tires, and the truck rolled to a halt. Indrid opened the passenger door and looked back at Duck over his shoulder. “Care to come in?”

Duck turned the car off and pulled the key out of the ignition. Then he followed Indrid up the steps of the Winnebago, slipped his hand into Indrid’s back pocket as he waited for him to unlock the door. Indrid, fumbling with the key, turned over his shoulder and grinned, white teeth gleaming in the darkness that sent a shiver down Duck’s spine. Indrid was like the ocean: mostly ordinary, or at least  _ comprehensible _ , but then sometimes the Smiling Man would surface, and you had to wonder what other sea monsters those depths could conceal.

Then the door swung open and they were inside, and the ocean’s surface was unbroken again, Indrid flipping on the light and locking the door and all the other ordinary gestures of homecoming. “So,” he said when their shoes were off and his keys were back in their bowl. “Where were we?”

Duck grabbed him by the hips and kissed him. Even blind and distracted Indrid knew when they were about to reach the couch and managed to sink gracefully onto it, pulling Duck into his lap. “Eager,” said Indrid. 

“You like it,” said Duck, and kissed him some more.

“That I do.”

“Y’know, pretending we met on Grindr is weird as hell,” said Duck, an inch away from Indrid’s lips, “but I think it’s hot.”

“I concur,” Indrid breathed.

“In that case.” Duck averted his gaze coyly, the kind of look he wouldn’t even attempt with his middle-aged face. “I know we only just met, and I don’t want you to think I’m, uh, easy, or anything, but I’d really like you to fuck me, Indrid, but I’ve never - you’ll have to, uh, show me how it’s done.”

“I would have gotten some rose petals if I’d known it would be your first time,” Indrid said. If you were going to lose your virginity to a Grindr date, Duck thought, Indrid would be a good choice. He was patient, for one, and gentle, and it was impossible to be embarrassed in front of him. 

“Oh, you know how morally bankrupt young people are these days. I’m just so horny I had to hand over my innocence to an older man I met on the internet.”

Indrid put one arm under Duck’s knees and another behind his back, and Duck didn’t quite believe it until it was happening, but Indrid was actually picking him up like it was the easiest thing in the world. Duck couldn’t even  _ remember  _ the last time someone had been able to carry him like this, and he clung to Indrid’s neck, giddy with it, until Indrid put him down on the bed. Then Duck was pulling his clothes off. Thank fuck whatever Aubrey had done hadn’t returned him to his actual twenty-two-year-old body; he didn’t think he could bear having tits again. 

Indrid hurried to undress as well. “You aren’t usually this forthcoming. I like it.”

It was true. Normally Indrid had to coax each piece of clothing off, get Duck turned on enough that he forgot his self-consciousness. “Usually I’m not young and hot.”

Indrid paused with his pants off and his shirt half over his head. “What?”

“You know. Of course I’m shier when I’m old and fat. Well, fatter.”

Indrid slowly pulled his shirt back down. “Duck, you’re not less attractive when you look your age.”

“I mean, objectively...”

“Objectively I’m a terrifying monster, but that doesn’t seem to put you off any.” Indrid crawled up onto the bed and kissed him sweetly. “I am the same level of attracted to you now that I always am, which is  _ very.”  _

“And I appreciate you very much and you’re very sweet but right now I’d like you to fuck me, please.”

Indrid finally put his hand between Duck’s legs. “Fuck, you’re already so wet.”

“The libido of youth, it’s really something else.” Duck arched his back into Indrid’s touch, whined a little when Indrid pulled his hand away.

“Open yourself up for me?” Finally Indrid took his shirt off and tossed it to the floor. “I don’t want to go too fast and hurt you.”

Oh. Indrid was taking the  _ gentle  _ thing seriously, now kissing Duck’s lips and his cheeks and down his neck, untouched cock hard against Duck’s belly. Well, Duck wasn’t going to complain about being able to set the pace; sometimes Indrid made him beg for every extra finger inside him. 

“You’re so nice to  _ touch,  _ Duck, I love how soft you are and your  _ eyes  _ and -” The sincerity in Indrid’s voice was unbearable, and Duck was terrified of how much he liked it.

“- and you’ve been acting like a perv, ogling me all night, surprised you didn’t start feeling me up under the table in the restaurant, couldn’t wait to get your hands on me.”

Indrid paused for a moment before taking the hint, back into their fantasy. “Yeah, I saw your tasteful torso pictures on Grindr and knew I just had to have you.”

“So  _ have  _ me.” Duck was scissoring three fingers inside of himself now, slick stretched between them. Indrid leaned over him to dig in the nightstand and came back with a condom in a shiny foil wrapper. “You’re prepared, you fuck a lot of guys like this?”

“No,” said Indrid as he tore open the condom wrapper. Then he looked up to Duck. “Or do I? In this fantasy?”

“Nah. I’m a virgin; maybe you don’t usually do this kind of thing either, don’t go chasing after younger men, but I’m special.” 

Indrid smirked. “I wouldn’t say I had to chase you. One date and you’re already begging for me.”

“Maybe I just know what I want.” 

“And what is it that you want?” Indrid rolled the condom down over himself. 

“You.” But no, that was too honest, the feeling in his voice too much even for their real, non-Grindr involvement, casual fling that it was, so immediately Duck amended his answer to something more fitting of their fantasy. “Someone to- to fill me up and fuck me.” 

“I hope I can satisfy you,” Indrid replied. He lined up with Duck’s entrance. “Good?”

“Yes, please, Indrid -”

Indrid pushed in easily, of course he did, they’d done this enough that Duck knew by heart how it took three of his fingers or four of Indrid’s to take Indrid’s cock comfortably, but Indrid still went slow, as though they were strangers, as though this was something delicate and new, watching Duck’s face for signs of discomfort at every inch. 

Duck wrapped his legs around Indrid’s waist and dug his heels into Indrid’s ass to get him to thrust in faster. He didn’t think an anonymous Grindr hookup would fuck missionary, but he liked seeing Indrid’s face too much to complain, Indrid’s lips parting as his breath came in gasps and his cheeks flushed and his glasses quivering on his nose and his pupils blown behind them. 

Indrid reached down and touched the underside of Duck’s thigh. “Your newfound flexibility… mind if I take advantage?”

“Go for it.” 

And then Indrid was lifting Duck’s leg, hoisting it up over his shoulder so he could press even deeper. 

“Fuck,” said Duck. “You’re so good.”

Indrid smiled shakily as he ground his hips against Duck’s, rocking himself in and out. “Call it the benefit of experience. You’re lucky you’re so hot even an old man like myself could get it up for you.” 

Duck actually laughed at that. Indrid got hard pathetically, flatteringly easily; finished easily, too, though he more than made up for it with his enthusiasm with his tongue. 

But now Indrid’s thrusts slowed. “Although now that I think about it, if you’re the one with all this youthful vigor, why am  _ I  _ doing all the work?” 

“You’d rather have me riding you?”

“I think it’s all my decrepit body can handle,” he said, grinning. He eased Duck’s leg down and bent down to kiss him again before pulling out. 

Duck got upright in half the time it would normally take him and ended up with Indrid flat on his back underneath him. “Fuck,” he said as he sank down on Indrid’s cock again. “This was a good idea. Gonna ride you ‘til I break you, old man.”

With one hand on his clit and the other toying with each of his nipples in turn, Duck rolled his hips. Indrid looked wrecked underneath him, glasses askew, hair spread out on the pillow, flushed and desperate. Duck chased his own pleasure, mindless of the needy noises Indrid was making, but even so Indrid came before he did, and his overstimulated whimpers chased Duck over the edge. 

There was no thought in his mind but pleasure, nothing to do but rub himself through it and crush Indrid’s hips between his thighs. Finally his breathing slowed, and he could see Indrid underneath him, looking fucked-out and spent. 

Duck’s twenty-two-year-old body could have gone for round two, and probably rounds three and four as well, but his forty-seven-your-old brain honestly just wanted to cuddle, and so he flopped down onto the mattress.

Indrid removed the condom, tied it off, and sat up. Then he tilted his head contemplatively, certainly watching the outcomes of potential velocities, and managed to toss the condom from across the bed into the wastebasket, where it landed with a wet plop. Duck started laughing.

“What?” said Indrid. 

“Oh, nothing. You’re just - I like you.”

“I should hope so,” said Indrid, and there was something unexpectedly vulnerable in his voice.

Duck took hold of Indrid’s wrist and tugged gently until he lay back down, close enough for Duck to kiss him on the forehead. Indrid made a little happy noise and wrapped his arms around Duck’s chest, and Duck put his arms around Indrid in return, and they held each other tight like they might never let go. 

**Author's Note:**

> i, the author, am 19, so. uh. if this is inaccurate, that's why. hit me up on tumblr @bellafarallones


End file.
